We have been a very busy quartet lately and occasionally there are times when not all four of us are available...

Introducing Samantha Webber!

Those of you who came along to our fringe preview shows and our shows with K&N will have seen a lot of Sam as she has been filling in for our alto player. Sam has been a kind of a 5th member of the quartet for quite some time and Rhapsodie always appreciates performing with her.

Samantha is not only an excellent saxophonist but she is a highly talented and accomplished clarinettist. Samantha currently studies a bachelor or music at the Elder conservatorium. She also performs in a variety of orchestras and ensembles, including the Adelaide Wind Orchestra. Last year Samantha performed as a concerto soloist with the Adelaide Youth Orchestra, playing the Weber clarinet concerto.

We look forward to working with Sam in the future and we thank her for all her work with us during the Adelaide Fringe festival.

]]>Wed, 08 Oct 2014 16:19:08 GMThttp://rhapsodiesaxquartet.weebly.com/blog/watch-this-space-fringe-2015]]>Thu, 27 Feb 2014 15:12:22 GMThttp://rhapsodiesaxquartet.weebly.com/blog/exciting-newsRhapsodie Saxophone Quartet would like to extend a huge thank you to all who attended our debut Fringe show on the weekend. It was a wonderful feeling to look out and see a large audience. It really does make all the work and effort that goes into preparing for a concert worthwhile!Speaking of efforts, RSQ would also like to thank a number of people. Without these people and their hard work, 'Sax to the Max' just would not be possible.Firstly, a special thank you goes to Saxism Saxophone Quartet. Thank you for inviting us to play and for being such amazing musicians! It was a real thrill to perform three pieces as an Octet with you. Thanks to Lindsay Heesom and Angela Heesom. Without both of you there wouldn't have been a show and we wouldn't have had a stunning venue to perform at! Thanks for immense amount of effort you both put in to organising this event.Of course we must thank our wonderful composers. Saxophone Quartet repertoire is relatively limited, so not only did these composers help our quartet but they have made a difference to the saxophone community by writing their stunning works! Thank you to David Lang for Harry's Fugue, Andrew Heuzenroeder for Metre's Running and Levi Whitworth for Saxophone Quartet No. 1Last, but certainly not least, a big thank you to our guest artist Max Ziliotto for his fantastic Djembe work in Drastic Measures. Some have said that this was a highlight of the evening. Great work Max, we hope to work with you again soon!Now for the exciting news! 'Sax to the Max' went so well that it was given a 5 star review in The Advertiser! See the review below:

David John Lang composed ''Harry's Fugue' especially for RSQ. It will debut in the Fringe concert, 'Sax to the Max'. David John Lang has been a composer for as long as he can remember. He formed an early attachment to the family piano and record player, and, from the age of about five, he and a friend from up the street co-wrote a series of Percussion Compositions, making use of various kitchen utensils. A few years later he began learning the piano and trumpet. David attended Marryatville High School as a Special Interest Music Student. This meant he studied music as a double-subject and was involved in many orchestras, choirs and jazz groups. He loved it so much that, despite the protestations of his chemistry teacher, he resolved to pursue music as a career. He went on to study a Bachelor of Music Studies (majoring in Composition) at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, graduating with First Class Honours in 2012, supervised by Graeme Koehne. His other teachers here included David Harris, John Polglase and Charles Bodman Rae. He attended three of the Australian Youth Orchestra’s National Music Camps during this time (twice as a composer and once as a writer), and in July 2012 he participated as a composer in the four-week Atlantic Music Festival, held in Waterville, Maine, USA. What he gets up to next is anyone’s guess, but David knows that it will involve writing a lot more music, as this is what he loves doing most of all. David’s composition work takes many forms, from ambitious orchestral projects to late-night songwriting with his cousin Emma. He has written for choirs, orchestras, short films, theatre, fun and friends. When not writing music, David loves writing about music and is well-known in Adelaide as a writer of concert program notes. He also works in a music library. To escape from music, David enjoys walking in the Adelaide Hills (although sometimes composition follows him up there), reading, and eating Haigh’s chocolate. ***David's notes on Harry's Fugue:Harry’s Fugue was written in January 2014, and is my first attempt at a “proper” fugue – one of the trickiest forms in music. The theme started out as a flute melody: a birthday present for my friend Harry (hence the title). But then I realised that it would be much better suited to the four saxes of Rhapsodie Sax Quartet. You will hear what I mean – it’s quite a robust, jazzy sort of theme, accompanied by finger-clicking and foot-stomping. It gets the full “fugue” treatment: the four saxes fight each other for the theme, which is unravelled, knotted together, tangled up and untied, over and over again. Eventually they wrestle it together into a unison C.***You can hear Harry's Fugue along with many other great pieces at 'Sax to the Max'. Purchase tickets here!

Andrew Heuzenroeder composed 'Metre's Running' especially for RSQ. It will debut in the Fringe concert, 'Sax to the Max'From a young age, Andrew Heuzenroeder developed a keen interest in music. At 7 years of age he began singing with the Adelaide Boys Choir, which served as the foundation for his musical journey for 6 years. At age 10, Andrew taught himself to read music out of a desire to learn the piano. Andrew began formal instrumental tuition at age 12 when he started learning the clarinet; to this day he has teachers Beatrice Lemm, Neal Holmes and Peter Handsworth to thank for his ongoing commitment to the instrument. Over the years, he expanded his instrumental music abilities, commencing tuition in oboe under Rosemary Stimson at age 15 and learning the Alto Saxophone from his brother. As a musician, Andrew has participated in a wide variety of ensembles, performing as a clarinettist in the both the Mercedes College orchestra and stage band. He has also been a member of the Adelaide Youth Sinfonia and Adelaide Youth Orchestra over the past 8 years as a clarinettist and bass clarinettist. Throughout his high school education, Andrew became fascinated by composition and took it upon himself to learn about various musical styles and forms. In 2008, as a part of his year 12 International Baccalaureate higher level music studies, Andrew composed a piece “Fantasy Piece No. 1” for orchestra which was subsequently performed by the Adelaide Youth Sinfonia and awarded the ASME Young Composer’s Award. Most recently, Andrew has been a member of the Unley Concert Band for the past 4 and a half years, and also plays as an oboist and percussionist with the Fusion Pops Orchestra. In 2009, Andrew began his studies at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, originally studying a Bachelor of Music specialising in classical performance on Clarinet, before ultimately switching to a Bachelor of Music Education, which he completed at the end of 2012. In 2013, Andrew began his music-teaching career at Christian Brothers College, where he taught music at the secondary campus. In this time, he consolidated his arranging skills through arranging music for various classroom and extracurricular ensembles. He has also enjoyed success in teaching the clarinet and saxophone to primary and secondary school students. In 2013, he received another award for his composition “Rhapsody for Alto Saxophone and Piano”. To this day, Andrew continues composing and arranging as a hobby and hopes to publish his works as music education resources. To buy tickets to 'Sax to the Max', click here.

Levi Whitworth composed 'Saxophone Quartet No.1' especially for RSQ. It will debut in the Fringe concert, 'Sax to the Max'.A drummer since the age of five, Levi Whitworth spent his Primary School years on Kangaroo Island learning the Drum Kit from a French Horn player. In grade 7, he was accepted into the Festival Orchestra, and was so eager to play, that he regularly caught a plane to Adelaide in order to attend rehearsals at Darlington Primary school, and Performances at the Festival Theatre.He then flew to the mainland permanently to study at Brighton Secondary School, where he learned Percussion, Piano, Electric Bass, and Saxophone. During his time at Brighton, he played in as many ensembles as possible, and eventually finished year twelve with a score of 100% in Ensemble Performance, and 98% in Solo Performance.He went on to spend some time drumming in a rock group, before joining the Banding community via the Holdfast Bay Concert Band. Since then, he has moved on to the Unley Concert Band as well as K&N Spring Gully Brass - both of which he currently attends as Principal Percussionist and Section leader.Though he began writing songs at an early age, it was not until the State Band Championships in 2012 that his writing was publicly performed. He placed second in the Open Percussion Solos with his performance of Indefinite Pitch - a piece he had written for Solo Bass Drum with a Piano Accompaniment.The RSQ’s debut of Saxophone Quartet No. 1 marks the second occasion on which one of his pieces has been performed publicly, and the first on which he has not been performing his own work.To buy tickets to 'Sax to the Max', click here.

RSQ will be combining forces with the Saxism Saxophone Quartet in the Fringe festival show, Sax to the Max. We thought we would like to share with you some interesting facts about the quartet and its talented members!Saxism saxophone quartet grew out of the Corner Pocket Big Band saxophone section. Four players began rehearsing as a saxophone quartet in late 2008. Along the way there have been many personnel changes and only two of the original members, Lindsay Heesom (baritone saxophone) and Kym Gluyas (tenor saxophone), remain. The current membership came together in early 2013 with the advent of Schmoe (Sylvan Elhay) on soprano saxophone joining Kym, Lindsay and Steve Eads (alto saxophone who joined the group in 2012). The players come from a somewhat varied background and the quartet plays a wide variety of music from classical to jazz.Soprano saxophone - Sylvan (Schmoe) Elhay

During the 1960's and 1970's Schmoe played clarinet, on a casual contract, with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. At the same time he was playing flute and saxophone in jazz, funk and rock bands. His Jazz ensemble Schmoe and Co plays concerts, club gigs, radio and TV broadcasts and recordings. Over more than four decades Schmoe has performed throughout Australia and in and around the San Francisco Bay Area. He currently teaches jazz at the Elder Conservatorium of Music and at the Stanford Jazz Workshop, Stanford California. He has scored, produced and performed the music soundtracks for several short films and works for ballet.He was a founding member of the SA Jazz Action Society, led the SA Jazz Coordination Program for many years and is now a member of the Board of Jazz SA Inc. He served two terms on the Australia Councils' Music Board. Schmoe was a member of the founding Board and is now an Honorary Life Member of the Music Council of Australia. In 2012 he was honoured for fifty years service to Jazz with a tribute by SA Jazz Archive.

Alto Saxophone - Steve Eads

Steve now teaches privately after thirty five years in the SA Education Department Instrumental Music Service. He served as Musical Director of the Banksia Park Concert Band, Convenor of the Adelaide Band Festival, State Music Camp Tutor and Conductor, Woodwind Methodology Lecturer at the University of Adelaide and AMEB Examiner.He led his own Big Band for many years and currently enjoys playing with the Salt and Pepper Big Band. He is also a regular Director of the JazzSA Super Band 3. Steve recently took up trombone and plays with the Uraidla Town Band and is a Technical Commissioner with the Council of Australian Baseball Scorers.Tenor saxophone - Kym Gluyas.

Studied Jazz saxophone, Music Technology and Sound Arts at Elder Conservatorium of Music. He is a qualified music teacher very interested in many styles of music and in creating new approaches with a mixing of styles. He has performed with groups playing World Music such as traditional Indian music, flamenco, big band, classical, jazz, latin and funk.Kym composed the music and foley sounds for four short films, a very successful cabaret series (Kabaret Konspiracy) and many other live performances.For three years Kym was Artistic Director for the continuous concert series C.O.M.A (Creative Original Music Adelaide). He also performs complex Distributive Performances "live" with musicians in India via the Internet through an on line channel.

Baritone saxophone - Lindsay Heesom

Playing saxophone, clarinet, bassoon, flute and oboe, Lindsay studied clarinet at the Elder Conservatorium of music before joining the SA Police Band and then becoming a freelance player in 1976.He played for the Australian tours of Ray Charles, Kenny Rogers, Shirley Bassey, Andy Williams, Phil Wilson, Chuck Finlay, Arthur Greenslade and Harry Secombe amongst others. He has also played with James Morrison, Don Burrows, June Bronhill, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the Adelaide Chamber Orchestra as well as many Adelaide Big Bands such as the ABC Show Band, Errol Buddle Big Band, Bob Hower Big Band, DW Orchestra, the Our Thing Big Band and other local ensembles.His list of Festival Theatre productions include Oh What A Lovely War, Pal Joey, Marriage of Figaro, High Society, Oklahoma, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Hello Dolly, West Side Story, Forty Second Street, Boy from Oz, Hot Shoe Shuffle, Threepenny Opera, Chorus Line, Singing in the Rain and Wizard of Oz.You can see Saxism Quartet along with the RSQ at our fringe concert, Sax to the Max' To book tickets, follow this link: http://www.adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/sax-to-the-max/2d9888cf-59de-4de0-8850-1e6485897434

Rhapsodie Saxophone Quartet is proud to announce their debut Fringe concert: Sax to the Max! The show will see RSQ collaborate with another great Adelaide based group: Saxism Saxophone Quartet. Both groups will present a varied programme together, featuring pieces from the romantic to jazz. RSQ will also be premiering pieces by local composers. The climax of the show will see Saxism and Rhapsodie combine to make one huge Octet; the Saxists! Be sure to come along, do not miss out! Book tickets through fringetix using the link below: http://www.adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/sax-to-the-max/2d9888cf-59de-4de0-8850-1e6485897434